Tag-Archive for ◊ mythology ◊

Arion the anime starts with our hero Arion living a peaceful life with his mother in the ancient land of Thrace. One day Arion’s uncle Hades takes off with him to the underworld so he can use him for against Zeus. Hades has him train for combat and tells that Zeus placed a curse that made his mother blind and the only way to break it is to slay him. Killing Zeus is no small task, as he is the designated ruler of anything land and has a massive military lead by Athena to boot. In and along his way out of the underworld he befriends beast and human, including a child thief that looks up to him as a brother.

Story and characters take bits of themes and character names from ancient Greek mythology. Titans, stories, and gods. I know from not staying at a Holiday Inn, but from watching Xena: The Warrior Princess and Hercules: The Legendary Journeys on American television. In stories of many mythologies old gods or god like beings called Titans replace the old and somehow explain how people took over their own destinies. In Arion the mother of Titans is Gaia, but much is thrown out and re-imagined with Titans living with Twelve Olympians names such as Zeus, Demeter, and Ares. Hercules is just a grunt. Pretty sure any mythology buff by now would already nerd rage from that alone.

Surprises come into play with the main characters as the story grows closer to climax. The impactful one for me was as abrupt for me as it was for Arion. Despite dropping clues in language and vocals throughout the movie, it still did not click with me. Disbelief lead to multiple re-watching of its revealing to contemplate how I missed everything. It is not as if I am naive or new to anime, but this time my acceptance of quirks and oddities got the best of me. I am not going to spoil it for those that may take interest in it, but it also might also be out of shame.

There are is a lot of deception in this anime with people having their own agendas. Many of the characters like Apollo are displayed as either spoiled, selfish, or incompetent. Apollo in Greek mythology is the god of mostly positive things like healing and truth. I admire the moments when characters show to be more human like when they are either not fully evil or good. This anime has it and shows it even while under the tight time of being a film. Again spoilers…

I regret to say this 1986 anime and the manga it was adapted from has never been licensed. Good news is that you may have seen anime with similar staff from the era. Yoshikazu Yasuhiko is the creator of Arion and the mecha anime Giant Gorg. He has done character design work for many other anime including Mobile Suit Gundam Unicorn and the kiddy anime The Adventures of the Little Prince. Comparison before watching or after for more to watch you may enjoy Giant Gorg for Yoshikazu Yasuhiko, similar set up with Sword of the Stranger, and Adventures of Horus: Prince of the Sun for something classic. Could even say The Mythical Detective Loki Ragnarok if you are also looking to see Norse mythology and characters snatched ‘n twisted into something new.

There is nothing wrong with this anime for the most part. Nearest thing to a flaw or annoyance would be the musical voice of one of the female characters. She has quite the noisy and loud catching of breath or oooh-uuh sounds.

I am still ashamed and shall take another shower to clean the cooties.